Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Sonia Henríquez

Long focused on the economic, health, and human
rights of indigenous women, Sonia
Henríquez is a leader of Olowagli, a women’s organization of the Guna Yala
region, which is along the Caribbean coast of Panama. Since 1996, Henríquez
has also served as the president of the National Coordinator of Indigenous Women of Panama(CONAMUIP), representing the Guna people. The organization formed in
1993, when the women from three ethnic groups—Guna, Emberá, and Ngobe—came
together to form an organization of indigenous women. The objectives of the
organization are to strengthen the participation and leadership of indigenous
women within the regional, national and international sphere, as a manager and
player involved in the social, economic, cultural, and political development of
society; to strengthen the historical and cultural identity, by recovering the
wisdom and spirituality of indigenous women; to raise the economic level of
indigenous women and their families; and to improve all aspects of the living
conditions of indigenous women.

Henríquez has also served as Executive Coordinator for
the Continental Network of Indigenous Women of America, a network of indigenous
women’s organizations from North, Central, and South America that provides a
space for indigenous women to exchange experiences and to develop continental
strategies and collaborative international action.As
coordinator for the Continental Commission
of Commercialization and Intellectual Property, she addresses issues of native
women’s art production and its commercialization and cooptation, a crucial
issue given that a major part of the economy of the Guna Yala region is focused
on the production and sale of molas. These colorful, appliquéd textiles have
been part of the traditional dress of the women since cotton cloth was
introduced after the Spanish colonization. Henríquez participated in a
successful lobbying effort to protect the Guna people against the
misappropriation of indigenous craftsmanship, after imitations of molas were
being mass-produced and sold.These lobbying efforts resulted in a national
law, Law No. 20, the Special System for
the Collective Intellectual Property Rights of Indigenous Peoples for the
Protection and Defense of their Cultural Identity and their Traditional
Knowledge, on June 26, 2000.Following
the passage of this law, the group organized the First National Crafts Workshop
in in 2005 to provide craftspeople and designers with information on
intellectual property law and the regulations concerning registration of use,
which protects various indigenous craft models.

As an activist for
women’s and indigenous rights, Henríquez has also conducted national and
regional seminars on gender and development, domestic violence, reproductive
and sexual health, leadership, and strengthening community organizations.She has also participated in international
workshops and conferences including the Continental
Indigenous Women's Workshop (1996), the Indigenous Women's Caucus on the Issues
of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (2001),
and the Central American Congress on STD/HIV and AIDS.

Henríquez has been recognized with many awards and scholarships, including a full
scholarship to attend an intensive course on Human
Rights at the University of Geneva in 2006 and a World Organization of
Intellectual Property Medal of Merit from the for her defense in the Protection
of Traditional Knowledge of Indigenous Peoples.

In 2009, twenty years after the Convention on the
Rights of the Child,UNICEF
in conjunction with CONAMUIP published
Ina and Her Tagua Bracelet,a storybook about a Panamanian girl and her experiences
moving to the city. At the public event to celebrate its publication, she
introduced the book and the interactive CD that accompanied it. Distributed for free to schools and libraries, the book
addresses discrimination, identity, friendship, and the notion that we may be
different but we have the same rights. Distributed, so that children could
learn about the culture and traditions of indigenous peoples.

At the publication in
2010 of Sociolinguistic Atlas of Indigenous Peoples in Latin America, alinguistic and sociocultural
analysis for Latin America also published by UNICEF with CONAMUIP (along with the
Ministry of Social Development and the support of the Spanish Agency for
International Development Cooperation), Henríquez noted the importance of the
volume for the indigenous peoples and those seeking to support them,"It is a tool to learn about the
situation of indigenous peoples in Latin America and Panama."

Earlier this year, sheparticipated
in a Dialogue on the Rights of
Indigenous Women in the Inter-American System in Guatemala City put on by the
Organization of American States (OAS).Along with leaders from Mexico and Costa Rica, Henríquezspoke about experiences of indigenous women in
relation to the protection mechanisms offered by the inter-American human
rights system.

____

Organized by the UCLA Center for the Study of Women
and cosponsored by the UCLA Latin American Institute, the UCLA Dean of the
Social Sciences, UCLA Institute for American Cultures, the UCLA Center for Oral
History, and the Charles E. Young Research Library, Henríquez’s lecture will take
place onNovember 20, 2014, from 4 to 6 pm in the YRL Conference Room on the UCLA
campus. It is part of the series "Women's Activism and International Indigenous Rights" curated by Maylei Blackwell, Associate Professor, Department of Chicano/a Studies at UCLA. Updated information can be found on CSW’s website: http://www.csw.ucla.edu/events/womens-activism-and-international-indigenous-rights-sonia-henriquez